Oversteer Hinders Tordoff In Qualifying

Triple Eight‘s Sam Tordoff battled oversteer issues throughout Saturday at Snetterton, and felt that he could have achieved much more than third on the grid for the sixth meeting of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season otherwise.

Tordoff qualified 0.759s adrift of pole-sitting team-mate Jason Plato as MG brought themselves back to the front of the field, at the same Norfolk venue he beat his illustrious team-mate to a maiden BTCC victory at last season.

Colin Turkington‘s BMW 125i split the MG duo in qualifying, Tordoff battling with oversteer problems throughout the two practice outings and into the 30-minute deciding session.

Tordoff was left feeling more disappointed than elated with his qualifying, telling The Checkered Flag: “We struggled with the car all day and couldn’t really got to grips with it.

“We’ve got various issues that I’ve been trying to dial out, but we’ve not really managed to get a handle on them so far. We struggled with oversteer mainly, then it went the other way in qualifying, but it seems to be slightly disjointed at the moment and all a bit messy.

“When it’s like that then you don’t really know what’s going to happen into each corner. It then makes it difficult when you have to relay that information to the engineers.

“So having said that, to be P3 is probably not that bad at all, because I wasn’t exactly comfortable enough with the car at all or too sure where those laps could have come.”

Snetterton has often been a happy hunting ground for the Leeds driver, who thrived in the BTCC-supporting Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2012, before famously scoring his first pole position and race victory in BTCC last year for the Triple Eight squad.

On Snetterton itself, Tordoff added: “I do like it; I always go well here, there’s just something about the circuit that I like. We’re back at the front, and it’s good to be back where the MG needs to be so hopefully we’ll have three good races.

“I know what I’m capable of around here and what the car is capable of here too, so if we can get that sorted overnight then we’re well in the fight for tomorrow.

“Overall, a trying day, but still we’re in with a shout. I know the car is good round here, and I think that’s perhaps why I feel we’re a bit further off what we could have been.”

Tordoff got the better of team-mate Plato last year in the opening race, and feels that he can challenge the pole-sitter once again, concluding: “I beat him last year, so there’s no reason why not tomorrow!”